atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Computers & Programming Computers, Software, Accessories Setting server time

Please don't shoot! I have what I hope will be a simple question:

Our office consists of a network of Dell desktops running XP and our server is a Compaq rack-mount running NT. Apparently, our desktop PC's have their time synchronized to the server. I have gone into the server's time/date setting in control panel and corrected it, but each day, the time goes back to being one-hour off. The server is on 24/7 and on a battery backup, so it never goes down.

If we correct the time on our individual desktops, it only stays correct for a while but the time "whittles" down gradually each time we access a file on the server. The next day, everything is off by an hour.

Any idea what I am doing wrong?

Are you updated on your software fixes? We had that problem after the time change on one of our office computers; she wasn't getting auto updates pushed out to her laptop. Updated it and she stopped losing the time setting.

Stacey, as far as I know, yes we have all of the current updates. Our CG is pretty good about that and he was just here about a month ago for an unrelated issue. He makes this a part of his routine, but I can't swear that he did everything.

Ed:

What's happening is that the server is going out and synchronizing it's clock each day. You've told it you're in GMT -5, and it's setting it for such without knowing Congress screwed you this year. If you tell it you're in GMT -4, then turn off adjust for DST it'll stop, but there are some underlying issues.

I would say patch it, but you don't want to pay for an NT4 Patch from MS. There are some aftermarket fixes out there for $19 but I haven't used them.

Well, I'll fix the issue with Congress next year. In the meantime, I will give that a try.

The first thing you need to do is make sure that all of your workstations have the DST update. The easiest way to do this is to open up the time and date by double clicking on the clock in the system tray and looking to see that the current time zone says central daylight. The central will vary depending on your time zone. The update for Windows XP is KB931836. You can get it from Microsoft.com. On your server you will need to use the tzedit utility from Microsoft. It is free and you can download it from microsoft.com. It basically lets you set the date that each time zone will use for the DST changes. You will edit your time zone and then change your time zone on the computer to any other zone and then change it back to the correct one. Its pretty easy to do and takes less than a minute. After all of this if there are any pcs that still show the incorrect time then you need to go to start, run, and type command and hit enter. Type "net time" and hit enter and see if you get the network time. If you get an access denied error then you just need to rejoin the domain and everything should be good from there. I think.

Ed, there isn't a simple patch for NT. There's a Time Zone section in the registry that needs to be changed. MS released an editor for it, called TZEDIT. Search for that on google and MS support page, and you'll (or your CG) will find it. You can just change the start and end dates for Eastern Time Zone. Then, you have to go to the Date/Time window (right-click the time on the taskbar) and switch your time zone from Eastern to something else, like Indiana, and then back again, click apply. Now the time should be correctly interpreted.. accurate is up to the server time.